456 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[Jan. 1, 1902. 
Divisional Officer were subsequently also identified 
as Hi/blosa puera. I am therefore inclined to thinli 
that this insect is also the culprit in the case of 
the damage done to harra. 
In oonsequeuoe of this wholesale destruction of 
foliage, the teak and harra trees were pvactically 
devoid of flower and fruit, and the majority of the 
harra flower which waa. produced never developed 
on account of the attacks of a gall insect. In 
September, 1900, I noticed that the floweriog spikes 
of many harra trees were covered with round bodies 
of a dark-red colour, bearing a superficial resem- 
blance to the fruit of a species of small fig. It 
appears that the flowers instead of developing into 
the usual myrobalans had, owing to the attack of 
a cynipid insect, merely produced these small galls. 
Specimens of the galls were sent by me to the 
Indian Museum for identification in October, 1900. 
The insects which emerged from the galls were 
pronounced to be chalcids, and were forwarded by. 
the Museum authorities to Hons. Andre, France, for 
identification. Mons. Andre, however, has been un- 
able to do more than identify the insects as chal- 
cids, and he surmises that they are parasitic on the 
cynipids which produce the galls. If this surmise 
is correct, and nothing but chalcids emierged from 
the considerable number of galls sent by me, it 
appears that the gall insect is subject to very wide- 
spread parasitic attacks in face of which it can 
scarcely develop to any extent or do any consider- 
able damage. There appears, however, to be a pos- 
sibility that the chalcids themselven are primarily 
responsible for the formation of the galls, and it is 
hoped that further observation s and the collection 
of additional specimens will settle this point which 
is of considerable importance in harra-producing 
tracts.— /jirfjan Forester R. S. HOLE. 
Divisional horest Officer, 
JUBBULPORE : 18th April, 1901. 
MINEKALS IN KUMAON AND GARHWAL. 
Many parts of the Himalayas are rich in minerals, 
but there is hardly a portion of the world which 
has been less prospected tha^n these mountains. 
"While such out of the way places as Ashantee, the 
interior of Central America, and even Borneo and 
Sumatra, have been well examined by prospectors 
and command lakhs of British capital, the fine 
range of the Himalayas, which has railways to ita 
foot-hills at many points, has hardly been examined 
in the least by the Geological Survey of India, much 
less by professional mining engineers. It is aston- 
ishing that so little has been done. Here is an 
immense range of mountains stretching from Afghan- 
istan and Kashmir through Nepal to Burma, the 
geological structure of portions of which is not even 
known. The mountains consist of a great central 
range of granites and gneisses and crystalline rocks, 
with nearly 50 miles of lower hills on either side 
stretching into India and Thibet. Most of this vast 
range of country consists of f ji mations more or less 
favourable for minerals. It is about the finest scenery 
in the world and the climate is excellent, hot for 
a month of two in summer but always cool at niuhta 
and cold in winter. Food is cheap and abundant, 
and the labour is doci'e, easily trained and cheap. 
The writer, who has for eighteen months or more 
been engaged in mining and prospecting in various 
parts of Kumaon and Garhwal, has rarely seen a 
cor.ntry in which the indications are more pi omising. 
As fur as can be seen these two provinces are full 
of minerals. Gold exists in the sands of almost every 
river, washed down from the reefs io the higher 
and central ranges. There are alluvial flats in some 
of the valleys, consisting of sands and gravels, 
which readily show a good colour in the pan. Some 
of iheso gold-bearing rivers take their rise in moun- 
tiatiR not more than three days' jonrney from the 
plains. Quartz reefs occur in schistose rocks in many 
places, and some of these are known to be auri- 
ferous graphite of excellent quality, more easily 
mined than in Southern India, and asbestos, eoid 
in colour and lent; in fibre, is frequently found. 
Prophyritic granite, associated with much scho'l is 
found in parts of Eastern Kumaon. and here trne 
lodes have been observed traversing both the granite 
and the adjacent clay-state, and containing traces of 
oxide of tin. Sapphires and other preciona stones 
are sometimes brought dovpn by the Bhoti.m traders, 
who fnqiiently come through the passes, driving 
flocks of sheep laden with borax and salt. Copper 
and lead have been abundantly worked in the past, 
and copper-bearing rocks are found all over both 
Kumaon and Garhwal. 
At half-a-dozen places there are most extensive 
old works covering many acres of hill-side, and 
there are also mountains which here and there are 
literally covered with ancient slags, which have 
been assayed and are sometimes found to contain 
as much as 2 per cent of copper. 
The revenue derived as royalties from the copper 
ores was pretty considerable, even in the first half 
of the last centuiy. There is every indication that 
the copper ores mined before the country was tiken 
over by the British must have been enormoas, 
judging from the extent of old mines. The copper 
ores occur mostly in limestone formations, often 
associated with talo slates and sclists. Both irregular 
deposits and true lode formations are met with, 
some of the lodes being of great siz-a. The ores 
mined long ago by the na'ives were mostly green 
and blue carbonates and the oxides of copper. Sul- 
phides and sulphurets they usually put aside as 
being too refractory for their primitive methods of 
smelting, and beneath the deposits of carbonates 
which they worked out many extensive deposits of 
copper pyrites and grey copper are still left. In 
several cases known to the writer, lodes of copper 
and iron pyrites of considerable width crop out 
very close to the surface, which have been abso- 
lutely unrouched by the natives. One feature is the 
number of gossan " backs " to be noticed in the copper 
districts. The natives have occasionally worked 
these, presumably for iron, to a little depth, but 
there can be little doubt that systematic exploration 
would reveal in depth great masses of copper pyrites. 
The hill copper was formerly noted for its purity, 
and even now the natives prefer to obtain their 
metal from Nepal, owing to i s being so much softer 
and purer than that obtainable from Europe. Assays 
of copper and lead ores from Kumaon and Garhwal 
show the presence of a considerable amount of 
silver, and occasion-illy a gold value is obtained. 
The climate of Kumaon and Garhwal is excellent. 
All the hills which range from 6,000 feet upwards 
are clothed with forests of good-sized pine oak, and 
rhododendron. There are deep valleys between, 
often only 1,500 feet above the sea-l^vel, in which 
oranges, lemons, peaches, bananas and o her fruit 
flourish exceedingly. The land is so fertile that 
two crops of corn are reaped evei-y year. The gieat 
difficulty is transport, all loac's being carried 
up into the hills by coolies. G lod roads can 
easily be constructed up the main valleys, and ample 
water power and facilities for wire rope railways 
occur everywhere. It is a matter of surprise that 
this vast country, bo fertile and teeming with min- 
eral wealth, has remained so long unexploiteJ, 
If only the attention of capitalists were called to 
the possibilities of the Himalayas it would undoubt- 
edly be explored, and found to be as rich a moun- 
tain range as the Eoeky Mountains or the Andes. 
Nearly the whole of the southern portion of the 
Himalayas is British territory, and there shnu'd be 
few, if any, difficaUies in the wav of pruspeeting 
these magnificent heights. F.G.S., A.I.M.M 
i'ioneer. 
